


Weight of the World

by Eline (Sans_Souci)



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, M/M, R2 Spoilers, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 06:05:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sans_Souci/pseuds/Eline
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Request for Suzaku/Lelouch, one last time. “I always loved you.” R2 Spoilers. Reformatted for AO3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weight of the World

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Atrocity after atrocity, the armies of the Emperor had rolled over countless fields of corpses. Victorious and merciless, Lelouch vi Britannia was undoubtedly the most reviled man in the world.

And now it was time for the grand finale. It was fitting that it should end here, in Tokyo where it all began.

The most powerful man in the world had risen early. In the pre-dawn gloom, Tokyo was silent--hushed in anticipation of the spectacle of the public execution that would be visited upon them within a few hours.

From behind the curtained window of his suite, Lelouch looked out onto the empty, silent streets. It was a while before he registered the presence of another in his room.

Suzaku, supposedly slain in the Battle of _Damocles_ , stood at his elbow. He was, for all intents and purposes, a ghost. Ghosts had no need of doors and did not need to knock to request entry into the Emperor’s chambers. In the uniform of a guard, he could have passed for an ordinary soldier because no-one looked for a dead man amongst the ranks of the living.

He looked down at the bulky bundle that Suzaku held. “Your preparations are done?”

They had made a promise. A pact. Sealed in the blood of tens of thousands of combatants and innocents alike. It was time to fulfil it.

“Aa,” Suzaku agreed curtly. If the costume, mask and sword that he carried weighed on him, he did not show it.

Lelouch almost smiled.

He had merely handed Suzaku a new mask and he knew that he was asking the world from a man who wanted nothing more than to die. But Kururugi Suzaku had died two months ago. Zero would be reborn in his place, on this day.

“So I suppose this is it then . . .” In the middle of the circus they had orchestrated, he had not factored in the time for saying farewell to his oldest friend. There was no time like the present, however. “Suzaku, thank you--”

Sword, mask, clothing tumbled onto the floor. Lelouch was vaguely aware of the muffled thumps they made as they landed on the carpet. This was because Suzaku’s arms were pulling him close, almost crushing him against his chest.

Suzaku’s mouth was warm against his lips. Lelouch had not realised that he had felt cold before.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

_When time restarted and the seconds continued their leisurely dance into eternity, only the three of them stood in the ancient ruins on Kaminejima._

_“And so what of it? Will you kill me here and find some way to die in battle?” Lelouch taunted. “Will you leave the ending to Schneizel? With FLEJIA pointed at the throat of the world?”_

_Lelouch had always been melodramatic, but Suzaku had paused because there was a strange air about Lelouch that he could not attribute to the ruins of the Sword of Akasha alone._

_“If you have to kill me, then you should do it like a knight slaying a dragon. A hero killing a monster. So that everyone will know that they are safe.”_

_And they had talked of wishes. Of making wishes come true. And of how people sometimes did not know what their true wishes were until they were faced with the worse that could possibly happen._

_Suzaku had questioned why rulers like the Emperor had tried to force changes on the world. He knew now that this was the way of kings and princes. As in the past, when their word was law and their wills' absolute. Kings changed the world._

_The Power of Kings . . ._

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The world would never know that it had been saved more than three months ago. The world also did not know that it had been spared a worse fate two months ago when Emperor Lelouch took the _Damocles_ and fired a single FLEJIA warhead that had decided the outcome of the war. It had taken several million deaths to get the attention of the world.

Now that they had everyone’s attention, there was only more act to play out in Tokyo at the site of FLEJIA’s terrifying debut.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Kururugi Suzaku had more experience wearing masks than he would admit to. 

When he was a boy, he had imagined himself as a samurai. A hero. 

Now he knew that heroes were about masks. Masks were only symbols.

There were masks and there were symbols. Loyal subject. Emperor. Patriot. Knight. Terrorist. Friend. Hero. All of them did not matter at that point in time. 

There was only him now. There was only Lelouch left. Bare under the overly grandiose canopy of the bed, the sweat on their skin catching the light with every movement. 

It was not what he had expected--if he had any expectations at all. This was not a fit of passion, lust or desire.

It was a farewell.

Without the need for banter, without words. They moved together in concert, as though they were former bedmates rather than strangers seeing each other for the first time. They had been so familiar with their masks that they had not looked beyond what they had taken for granted.

_Hello and good-bye._

Lelouch whispered the name of a dead man against his skin and it was suddenly over. A sudden surge of overwhelming emotion that gave away to stillness and the sound of two heartbeats racing. Eventually, the brief rush faded and he had to strain to hear their every breath. 

In that silence, he heard a voice, low and quiet in the dim room.

“I always loved you.”

And there was nothing more to say. Nothing that would not break his resolve right there and then. Not here and not now when there was a garishly decorated sword and mask not three feet away and a bloody stage to set before the last scene could be played out.

He could have--he _had_ asked why Lelouch was going through with the plan even though Nunnally was still alive. But he already knew the answer to that. There had been too many deaths already. Someone had to answer for them.

He could have asked if there was another way. But they had already gone too far to turn back. He had known, when Lelouch had used the _Geass_ on Nunnally that it was too late. Lelouch had committed himself to being a monster. And monsters had to be slain.

He could have said _Screw the fucking promise!_ But he knew which path Lelouch would choose in the end.

He could have refused to do it, but Lelouch would have simply _Geassed_ someone else to do the deed. If anything, the least he could do was bear it . . .

In the end, there was only silence as a monster and a dead man rose, masks in place, to put on a show for the world.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Zero, the resurrected ally of justice, killed an evil tyrant and the world realised that it had been saved from a horrible fate. There was much rejoicing and the unlamented despot was buried in an unmarked grave because his sister did not want his resting place to be defaced by vandals.

It was a little too late for the tomb of Kururugi Suzaku, which had been one of the first targets of the mob’s hatred. Both the Japanese and the Britannians voted unanimously to leave the ruined grave the way it was as a reminder.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The man known as Zero never went to Jeremiah Gottwald to have the first _Geass_ that forced him to live removed. It was a safeguard against temptation when memory no longer served its purpose. When the second _Geass_ that he had willingly accepted was too much of a weight to bear.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

**Author's Note:**

> Episode 25: I like to think about it as _ooh penetration_.


End file.
